"Hey Allison."

Next to her, David and Tyson were sitting on the ground playing some sort of game. They appeared to be engaged in a card game, each holding a pack of index cards that had pictures and text scribbled on them. David was of average height and looked slightly thin. This was a deceptive appearance, as David was the strongest of the group. His brown hair was messy. Tyson was a little short, with pale skin offset by jet-black hair combed and gelled neatly in place.

On her other side stood Jeff, who was about the same height as her. His hair was dark brown and a few freckles decorated his face. His average build was also deceptive; he was nearly as strong as David.

Mark doubled over laughing. "Man, are you guys always playing a card game?"

Allison nodded, and Jeff affirmed this with a "Yes, yes they are."

With his usual hyperactive personality, Tyson left to his feet and practically bounced up and down while he explained rapidly. "Yup, we both made card games that kind of work together so me and David are having a duel where he uses the cards from his game and I use the cards from my game, and it’s a lot of fun, even though sometimes it doesn’t work cuz they are different games, and right now I’m kicking David’s ass!"

" Hey Allison," Mark said. "Have you seen Chris?"

She shook her head.

"Oh well. So, how are you doing?"

She shrugged. "I’m okay I guess. I’m definitely glad that school is getting out early today."

"What do you think about all this?" He pointed at the sky.

In response, she gave him a feral grin. "Perpetual night? Sounds kinda… cool." On the ground beside her, Tyson nodded in agreement.

He laughed again. "Cool? How is that?"

She grinned wider. "Wouldn’t you like to know?"

"You know, I’m not really sure if I do want to know," he teased

Jeff gave Mark a feral grin. "After this, the two of us are burning down the school!" As he said ‘us’ he jerked his thumb at Allison.

"Is he serious?" Mark asked David.

"Probably."

Jeff stuck his hand in his backpack, pulled a box of matches, and grinned more.

Once again, Allison nodded. "Yeah, we’ve got it all planned out. And it’s the perfect time."

Suddenly some sort of passion must have overwhelmed them, as she and Jeff began spontaneously making out, a full-blown kiss with some tongue action. Mark grinned at the amusing spectacle.

"Uh, well, I have to get going… talk to you later… try not to burn the school down until after I’m gone, okay?"

Tyson bounced up and down. "They’re gonna set Michael on fire!" He nodded vigorously.

Mark ran away. He could hear laughter behind him.

He looked through the cluster of juniors for several minutes, but he didn’t see anyone that he recognized. Finally giving up, he worked his way through the crowd and started up a flight of steps.

The steps led up to a hallway that went between two of the buildings. He stepped onto the concrete and set off down the hallway.

He found Chris sitting on a sidewalk in the back of the school. Chris’s normally neat blonde hair was all mussed up. He had little drops of water on his shirt, and more ran down his face to splash against the concrete. Worried by his friend’s appearance, Mark approached him, moving his feet slowly and quietly.

"Hey man. You ok?" Mark asked carefully.

Chris sobbed and looked at him. "We’re screwed over, man! We’re all gonna die! Oh God!" He began to cry again.

"We aren’t dead yet!" Mark yelled in response. He had learned a long time ago that a forceful military-sergeant attitude was the most effective way of getting Chris to feel better.

But Chris shook his head, sending little droplets of water in various directions. Then more tears streamed down his face.

"Come on! Lighten up!" Mark insisted.

Chris slowly stopped sobbing. "Yeah, I… I guess you’re right." He paused and stared off into space. One last tear rolled down his cheek. Then he sighed heavily. "Well, let’s get going."

Together, Mark and Chris walked to the front of the school. When they arrived at the front gate, Mark was taken aback. There was a huge mob of people there. Students shoved each other around, trying to get on the first bus to leave. Some were getting into fistfights, and more than one person lay on the ground. The noise was horrendous. Mark had never heard anything so loud. People screamed, cried, barked orders, at one another… it was an almost unbearable level of sound.

"Uh, let’s go this way," Chris suggested lightly. He swung his right arm in the direction of the school’s baseball field, where a smaller gate led to another street. From there, they could loop around to the front of the school. It seemed like the best plan available.

"Right." Mark and Chris took off, their feet pounding loudly against concrete and then grass. They made it to the gate before the crowd began heading in that direction. Slowly, the crowd inside the school began to fan towards the gate. Mark and Chris both began moving their legs faster.

Mark turned his head and looked carefully at Chris. Chris looked a little frazzled, but he was definitely more confident than he had been.

"Hey, uh, how are you getting home?" Mark asked him casually.

"My mom will come to pick me up. Do you need a ride?"

Mark shrugged. "If it isn’t too much trouble…"

Chris laughed. "Don’t worry.
Mark tried to look for Chris’s mom’s car. Without sunlight or even moonlight, it was far too dark to see more than a few feet ahead. Suddenly, the streetlights snapped on, filling him with a sense of relief. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the light, and then he continued walking with Chris.

"Oh, there she is," Chris remarked, pointing his left arm at a green Volkswagen Beetle parked on the other side of the street. Together they sprinted across and to the car.

Chris’s mom appeared justifiably stressed; her hair was messy and she had sweat on her forehead. She glanced at Mark. At first her eyes were wide and she stiffened, but then she shrugged and motioned for him to climb in. "Oh, hey Mark. I’m real sorry, but my car’s heater doesn’t work, so it’s gonna be a little chilly."

"That’s ok, Mrs. Smith. I don’t really mind," Mark assured her as he entered.

As they drove, Mrs. Smith turned on the radio. "However, citizens are asked to do everything possible to conserve electricity," the reporter was saying. "Many people are going to have their heaters on, and it’s going to be very taxing on the city’s power generators."

"The president of the U.S. just issued a statement saying he will be pouring millions of dollars into additional power plants and research on a way to keep the earth alive. Hopefully we will discover a simple way to preserve life. Of course, we have to act fast. It’s getting going to become cold very quickly."

Their car pulled up to Mark’s street. Chris’s mom turned around and smiled at him. "Ok, we’re here."

He nodded. "Thanks for the ride! I’ll see you later, Chris."

Chris waved goodbye. "Later."

Worried about how his mother was coping, Mark turned around and ran up to the front door. He grasped the knob, turned it, and threw the door open, then dashed in.

His mother was inside, along with hundreds of pieces of firewood, stacked haphazardly along the walls. She smiled when she saw Mark. "We aren’t going to freeze to death if I can help it! We won’t starve either." She pointed at a huge pile of food in the corner of the room.

He blinked, surprised.

"I was in the market when it happened. I got 80% off everything," she explained with a satisfied smile.

Mark nodded.

"So, could you help me load this food into the freezer?"

He groaned. "I just got home! I want to…"

But his mom guessed his plan before he could finish explaining it. "You can help me finish loading the food into the freezer before you call her."

"Dang."

He helped his mother load the meat into the freezer. It took quite a while, but at least it meant they would have food.

After they were finished with that, Mark walked throughout the house, shutting off every non-essential electrical appliance. He turned off the computer too, after a small mental struggle. He wanted to play a game and get away from it all, but he knew he had to conserve power.

He wished his dad was home, but he was on a business trip. To hell with business! Mark thought, but he knew that his dad couldn’t come home just yet. Especially not now.

His mom called for him from the other room. He went in and found her trying to start a fire. "Here, I’ll get it," he said shortly. He gathered twigs and leaves from the floor around the firewood and stuffed them into the bottom of the fireplace. When he had enough kindling underneath the wood, he withdrew his lighter from his pocket. Flames raced across the kindling and a fire quickly began roaring, provided comfortable warmth.

"Thanks," his mom said after he was finished. "I appreciate it."

"Any time."

After considering his remaining recreational options, he picked up the phone and dialed his girlfriend, Jennifer. After 11 rings she answered the phone.

"Hel- hello?" her voice asked shakily.

Mark was startled by the sound of her voice. She sounded terrified!

"Jennifer?"

"Mark, is that you?" Jennifer said.

"Jennifer, are you okay?"

There was no answer.

"Jennifer? Baby, come on, answer me!" He was afraid for her, horrified by the thought that something could have happened to her. He didn’t know what he’d do if she was hurt, or even died.

After a short silence, she spoke again. Her voice came across the line quietly. "Mark, I’m terrified!" She started bawling. It was strange hearing his 17-year-old girlfriend cry.

"Listen to me," he said softly. "It’s gonna be ok! We are gonna survive! Humans survive everything. We adapt. We live. We’ll live" He sounded serious, but he was lying. He was certain they were going to die. He didn’t care anymore. He had his friends, his family, and his girlfriend… he would stay with them until the end.

"How can the sun just go out? It’s impossible!" she cried, unbelieving. "This can’t happen!"

"But it did. And you have to face it. You can’t give up."

"How? Why?"

"Because I love you."

She paused. "Mark…" Her voice was filled with emotion.

As he opened his mouth to speak, he observed his mother walking into the room. She motioned for the phone.

"I know, but know isn’t the time. I have to go."

"Mark…" she said again.

"I’m sorry, my mom needs the phone. Bye Jen. I’ll see you soon." He pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed the off button with his thumb, then swung his arm and released it from his grip. His mother fluidly extended her hands and caught it. She was accustomed to him throwing her things.

Feeling a bit confused, Mark threw on his windbreaker and walked outside to take a breath and think a little. When he stepped out the front door, he realized the air was becominng cold. It was 3:37 PM, and it was already the temperature Mark would normally expect around ten at night. Damn, it’s gonna be cold tomorrow he realized. He momentarily felt sorry for the people in Alaska. But I hear freezing to death is the best way to go. You just suddenly feel peaceful and fall asleep. They are probably the lucky ones.

He sighed and stared upwards at the sky.

Without any warning, a loud noise came tearing down the street. He leveled his head and probed for the source of the sound. A large truck loaded with barrels was speeding past him.

As Mark watched, the driver nonchalantly threw a cigarette out the window. The wind immediately picked it up and blew it into the bed of the truck, where it settled amongst a collection of barrels marked ‘Flammable’.

The smoldering remains of the cigarette must have with one of the flammable liquids, setting it on fire. Almost instantly, the barrels began to explode, one by one. Finally, the truck’s gas tank exploded. The blast scorched the street and knocked Mark on his back.

A dull ringing noise filled Mark’s ears, drowning out everything but the sound of his breathing. His mind raced with unclear thoughts. He was shocked by the freak accident, and had difficulty not vomiting at the thought of the driver burning to death, trapped inside the scorching-hot truck. At least it was warmer, if only for a little while. He pushed himself off of the grass and rose unsteadily to his feet. The truck continued to burn

A little shaken, Mark turned towards his house and began moving his feet. As he walked, his head began to clear and his ears stopped ringing. Finally he shook off the last residual effects and leaned in through the front door.

"Uh, mom, I’m going over to Jennifer’s house," he called out.

His mother mumbled something from the other room. Mark wasn’t sure if she’d heard him, but he didn’t feel like hanging around any longer, so he was satisfied with that and left.

Back outside, a large crowd had gathered around the burning wreckage of the truck. One man was tugging at the driver’s side door in a vain attempt to rescue the remains of the driver, but even from farther away Mark could tell the corpse was charred to the point of not being recognizable. He contemplated telling the people what had happened, but he wasn’t feel quite right emotionally or mentally and didn’t feel like getting involved.

He went around to the side of his house and opened the gate. In a narrow hallway between the house and garage was his bicycle. He grasped it, picked it up and carried it back to the front yard. As he swung his right leg over the seat to get on, he glanced at his watch. It was 3:58 PM. It had been four hours and thirteen minutes since the sun went out. It was already getting fairly cold. And it’s only going to get colder.